Story of a performance
I am fascinated by the idea of telling stories through pictures. How do I communicate to my audience as to what is unfolding in front of me? What I "see" is a part of "my reality". The camera view-finder allows us to "choose" what portion of reality we wish to share. This choice then ultimately differentiates between the works of two photographers capturing the same scene at the same time.
Dance is a "visual art". The artist communicates through her gestures, expressions and attire a concept, a song, a story. In other words, a performing artist is a visual storyteller. What if I were to tell a "story of their story"? The story of a performance!
The idea struck me in 2014 as I ventured into photography on a full-time basis and began by capturing the many beautiful dance and music concerts being held in Delhi. The preparation for a 30-40 min on-stage performance would start right from the time the artist is introduced to the dance form. She puts in many many years of training and practise to hone her skills. "It takes about 10 years to perfect a pirouette" - said Bharti Dang , of Subha Dance Company, told me when I met her in the context of telling the story of her upcoming performance.
And so it began, in the summer of 2015, my first personal photo project. of documenting what goes into a dance performance. I had a few ideas in mind that I sketched roughly on a few bits of paper. I shared these thoughts with Bharti, who almost immediately said yes to partner with me in this project. She had an upcoming dance performance titled "Maula...the Way". My timing couldn't have been better - she had just started putting together the concept for this recital.
I was super excited about the entirely new experience that I was about to have. I would get the opportunity to interact with both the exponents and aspirants in the field of Kathak, technical artists who deftly work on the lights and sounds and so on. Most importantly, I was looking forward to witness the transformation of a mere thought, intangible & virtual, into something visual!
Months of preparation culminated into a fantastic performance by Subha Dance company, well received by critics & audience alike. You could follow the link here to take a look at the photos of the actual event held on 30th August 2015 at the India Habitat Centre, Delhi. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.885442081536907.1073741832.382169441864176&type=3
Time now to pick a new topic and plan for another personal project :)